KUWAIT -- Foreign ministers from member nations of the Non-aligned Movement converged Sunday on Kuwait for a meeting that was expected to focus on ways of ending the 18-month-old war between Iran and Iraq.
The three-day meeting, which opens Tuesday, also marks the first time Egypt attends a conference in an Arab country that severed relations with Cairo after the 1978 Camp David peace accord with Israel.
Observers said Egypt's presence at the conference to prepare for a summit of non-aligned leaders in September could give added impetus to Cairo's return to the Arab fold under President Hosni Mubarak.
The meeting also will bring together the foreign ministers of Iran and Iraq -- Iran's Ali Akbar Velayati and Iraq's Saadoun Hammadi -- for the first time since the war between those countries began in September 1980.
Other topics expected to be discussed during the sessions at Kuwait's Holiday Inn included the Palestinian question and the recent disturbances in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinian sources said Farouk Kaddoumi, head of the political office of the Palestine Liberation Organization, would present a working paper on the Palestinians and developments in the occupied territories.
Expectations that the Gulf war would figure prominently in the Kuwait meeting mounted last month when Iran demanded the September summit be moved from the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is expected to assume the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement at the September summit in a much-needed boost for his international prestige, damaged by the prolonged war and Iran's recent victories on the battlefield.
Iraqi officials recently have shown increasing flexibility toward efforts to end the war, estimated to cost Baghdad $1 billion a month. Diplomats say the softer Iraqi stand reflects Hussein's uneasiness at the prospect of a continuing war when the summit convenes in Baghdad.
The Non-Aligned movement has 34 members and currently is chaired by Cuba. In all, 23 nations including Afghanistan have been invited to attend the Kuwait conference as observers.
